A thread for people who think Obamacare should be perfect, right now, or it should die

[jmowreader]

I will admit, this thread is a gamble: almost all the people who think Obamacare should be eliminated because it didn't start out totally perfect - or, for that matter, who'd think it should be eliminated even if it was flawless right now - are on a different site, or not on the internets at all. But what the hell...

Walmart is the biggest private employer in the world. Five years after its founding, Walmart had 24 stores, all in the state of Arkansas, and generated less than $13 million in total annual sales. (By way of comparison, a single large Walmart of today will do that much business in a month.)

The Miami Heat are the defending NBA Champions and have won the title three times. In their first eight seasons, they made the playoffs twice, were eliminated in the first round both times, and were considered the worst team in professional basketball.

This is Honda's first car. Enough said!



The point: things take time to get right, and there are some things about Obamacare, as it stands right now, that are a quantum leap over what we had - allowing people to keep their kids on their policies through their college years comes to mind immediately. To use a metaphor, condemning Obamacare right now before it's even been fully implemented (and after three years of Republican attacks and defunding) is a bit like going to the store, picking up an onion, pointing at your spouse, and screaming at the top of your lungs, "this is terrible spaghetti sauce! What makes you think you can cook!?" Give Obamacare a little time to simmer before you decide it's unsalvageable.

[Gravitycollapse]

1. Is there a way to discuss the issues and success of Obama care without referring to cars and sauce?

These analogies get old real fast. I just want to talk about what's actually happening.

[Control-Z]

2. They are good analogies.

A child would understand them. And we are dealing with the intellect of petulant children with the GOP. So why not?

[Gravitycollapse]

3. Maybe we shouldn't be discussing complex subjects in a manner that a child would understand.

You'll probably toss out a lot of the issue in the process.

[jmowreader]

4. Read the OP again

I picked three examples of private-sector entities that started out slow or badly, and are now successful. I could have thrown in a few websites that had problems worse than healthcare.gov...but amazon.com had a big advantage over healthcare.gov in that it didn't have to tie in to so many external systems. The government's site has to talk to the state-owned exchanges, serve as a centralized exchange for all the states that refuse to build their own systems, has to talk to private insurers and the IRS...amazon's site only had to talk to amazon's backend and they still weren't able to get it perfect.

Add in the fact that there are plenty of malefactors who are working 24/7 to undermine Obamacare...from the Republican Party who hasn't done anything but try to kill it, to the private insurance companies who are working even harder to screw people out of grandfathered insurance plans. The only people who tried to undermine the Miami Heat are the other teams in the NBA, and they were supposed to do that. (Walmart is another story: there are regional chains that do okay, and Sam Walton was profitable because even in the Arkansas-only days he knew how to buy cheap enough to profitably sell cheap.)

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. he is talking about what is actually happening and comparing it to past "failures" that ended up

rousing successes. The naysayers about Obamacare are on the wrong side of history and will be laughed at in a couple of years or less.

[Cosmocat]

5. its hopeless

the Rs have made killing Obamacare their sole cause in life. They drive the discussion in this country, and the media will spew what they spew in one form or another, Ds will hide in a corner sucking their thumbs and the dull masses will wear out and give in to what they want.

What you post makes sense, and if it were an R program, framing would be totally different.

But, they will never stop, they will attack, attack and attack, and unless there are some really miraculous positives that pop up real quick, they are going to destroy it.